The Dark Commandment
by Loke Groundrunner
Summary: The tale of the discovery of the Sith temple on the farflung world of Dromund Kaas. Loosely based backstory for the video game Mysteries of the Sith.


The Dark Commandment

NOTE: I don't own Star Wars, I just make stories about it.

"Bane was a fool!" cried Darth Millennial. After many years of being trained by the Rule of Two, established by Darth Bane several decades before, Darth Millennial had left his foolish master and had recruited many followers to his cause. "Lord Kaan knew that true power is achieved in numbers, not two!" he bellowed at the people in the shuttle. They had been travelling through hyperspace for several days now, Millennial claimed he had found severaal world that he would turn into monasteries of the Dark Force. Then the vessel blasted out of hyperspace. "We're here!" said Millennial. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and a scar above his right eye (It probably came from his master.). His followers, all draped in black hooded robes, gathered at the helm of the shuttle and gazed out at the stars. Before them lay a star system of five worlds, all very strong in the dark side. Two of the worlds were barren and rocky, one was a gas giant of blue, purple and red, a swamp world and a desert planet. "This is the Dromund System," Said Millennial with a sadistic grin on his face, "This is were our journey begins." All of Millennial's followers were acolytes of the Dark Force religion, a sect of the Sith Order that refused Bane's Rule of Two and reinforced Kaan's Rule of the Strong. The Sith Lord piloted the shuttle down to the green world, as the ship plunged into the world's atmosphere, the sounds of creatures wailing and roaring could be heard. Soon, the shuttle landed in a swamp, where a twisted black tree grew many meters tall and the upper branches looked like a person reaching for the sullen sky. The people stepped out of the shuttle and Millennial said, "Welcome to Dromund Kaas." The entire world was covered in swampland and on of the acolytes grumbled has he stepped in something dark and squishy. After about an hour of walking through the marsh, they came to an ancient temple and Millennial said, "This is the place where our faith in the dark side shall take root." They walked to the temple, near the entrance; two statues of an unknown race seemed to be guarding it and one acolytes queried; "Darth Millennial, how did you find this place?" "The ancient Sith told me." Replied Millennial. The temple's door opened and everyone went inside, the ancient door slammed behind them. They walked down a corridor and spoke to them; "This system was once part of the ancient Sith Empire, but once it collapsed, this and all their worlds were abandoned. After I forfeited my training under my master, who was very strong in the dark side of the Force, The Sith spirits that resided in the Dromund System visited me in a dream. They gave me the coordinates to the Dromund System and I learned their skills of dark alchemy." They left the corridor and came to a large courtyard, Millennial and his acolytes could feel the dark side flowing through this evil place. They went into a nearby doorway and wandered deep into the temple. They eventually came to a large room where a platform hovered above a pit and moss and vines grew on the ivory walls. "Come, my brothers and sisters," said Millennial, he jumped onto the platform, "Touch the power of the dark side of the Force! Feel it! Embrace it!" As he spoke, electricity covered everyone in the room. The acolytes began chanting; "The ways of the old shall be new. The ways of the ancient Sith, the ways of Kaan, shall be new." So then, Darth Millennial declared himself the Supreme Prophet of the Dark Force and many years later, left for the world of Bosthirda to rule over all the dark prophets across the galaxy. The Prophets of the Dark Force remained in tranquility, meditating on the dark side and practicing their Sith witchcraft on Dromund Kaas for years.

Many hundred years later, Dromund Kaas was ruled over by the descendants of the first prophets, who had been long buried in the temple catacombs long ago. At the Outpost of the Dark Tree, the same place where Darth Millennial landed his shuttle years before, a mere sixteen kilometers from the temple, a scout stood guard with his two partners. They were Tissk, a Quarren, Selon Nodar, an Utapaun, and Garl, a Klatooinian. Guard duty seemed pointless, being that there hadn't been any intruders on Dromund Kaas in at least twenty years, but today, that was about to change. Tissk saw a shuttle landing in nearby; he ran into the outpost, a small hut built near the Dark Tree, and told his fellow guardsmen; "there's an unknown vessel landing in the swamp!" The guards grabbed their lightsabers (The ancient prophets had carried down the skill of building them to the younger generations.) and Selon beckoned the guard's pet vornskr to follow them, the beast acknowledged with a cackle-purr and followed. Tissk froze in horror as he saw their mysterious visitors to Kaas, a man dressed in a black robe with a cowl thrown over his head, next to him stood ten armored warriors, all dressed in the same white armor and helmets and all ten carried blasters. The vornskr snarled and leapt at the man, the guards tried firing their blasters at it, but do to either the atmosphere or the dark side energies on the planet, their weapons stalled and would not fire. The hooded man pulled out a lightsaber, ignited it and thrust the long red blade into the vornskr's face. The beast snarled in pain as life escaped it, the scouts lit their lightsabers and the hooded man used the Force to throw the tree beings to the ground. "Extinguish your lightsabers, gentlemen." Said the man in a gravelly voice. Garl nodded to his partners and they put out their blades and the man said, "Bring me to your temple, I have a proposition to make." Before the trio could express their surprise, the man said, "You're wondering how I know of this place. I am strong in the dark side of the Force, bring me to our temple and I shall tell all."

Kimur Alagon, one of the most powerful of the prophets, was in the temple meditation chamber, the same one where Darth Millennial declared himself the first Supreme Phophet. The current Supreme Prophet was away on the system of Bosthirda, where he ruled over all Dark Force believers. Kimur could see the past of Dromund Kaas, he saw the Sith people of old building the temple ages ago, how their use of dark alchemy poisoned Kaas, causing the once-vast forest world into a warped wetland, their abandoning of the temple, Darth Millennial's rediscovery of it. He also saw a short wizened Jedi Master with pointy ears and green skin exploring the system, and then Kimur felt a great rift in the Force, one that seemed to suggest someone of great knowledge of the dark side had come. The chamber door opend and a young Twi'lek child named Eelana Sotta said to Kimur, "Master, Tissk, Selon and Garl have come. They say they found a man out in the swamp who is a Sith Lord!" Kimur left his meditation and said to her, "I will see this for myself, those three are known to be bunglers." As he left, he stroked Eelana's lekku; Eelana was used to it. She had always been picked on since she could walk. Her parents, two very respectable prophets had died when she was not even a year old. (It was whispered in the temple that they were poisoned for many unnamed reasons.) Eelana was always abused, and the younger prophets would make her dance nude for them. Indeed, she had a very dark life, and she would get her revenge one day.

All the prophets had been gathered in the main dining hall, Kimur walked into the room and seated himself at the long table where his fellow prophets had gathered. Seated at the very end of the table was a man dressed in a dark robe, Kimur felt the dark side throb from this man. The man stared at everyone, Kimur shivered as he saw the man's face beneath the hood, a terrible white deformed face that was withered with age. Kimur saw the old man's hands, gnarled and crippled, they clutched a glass of wine. The man stood up; "_It's amazing he can even stand up." _Thought Kimur. This person, who called himself a Sith Lord spoke to them in an aged, evil voice, "I am Darth Sidious," said the man, "I come to you bearing news and a request." "What is the news?" Asked a Sullustan pophet. "The Republic and the Jedi are no more!" proclaimed Sidious, the prophets murmured. "How is that possible?" queried a Zabrak prophet. "Long ago," began Sidious, "I was trained by one of the strongest Sith Lords of modern times; Darth Plagueis." The prophets grumbled amongst themselves. "Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, possibly the strongest since Exar Kun or Darth Bane. He had a great mastery of the dark side of the Force; he could even extend life beyond its natural limits! After I had learned everything from him, I murdered the old fool in his sleep. When I was young, he once told me there was an apprentice of the Sith who left his master and rejected the Rule of Two. He formed a religious sect of the Sith Order, mirroring the Rule of the Strong and teaching his followers in the ways of meditating upon the dark side everyday. He brought his followers to a remote system to firmly establish their beliefs, I see he was successful." He then explained how he became Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, how he caused the galaxy to erupt into a great Clone War. He then explained how he lured a Jedi Knight named Anakin Skywalker, who the Jedi Order thought was 'the Chosen One'. He then detailed how the Republic was transformed into the Galactic Empire, how most of the Jedi were exterminated and how he used the Force to bring his apprentice back to life after the young man had sustained injuries during a duel with his former master on the planet Mustafar. "There are small groups of terrorists that wish to destroy my Empire, but they shall fall!" "What is your request?" asked Kimur. "My request," responded Sidious, "Is that the Dromund System becomes a training ground for my future apprentices. "But didn't you said you already have an apprentice?" inquired a Cathar prophet, "You would be breaking the Rule of Two to take more." "I have very little faith that my esteemed Lord Vader is the apprentice I was searching for," replied Darth Sidious, "His power is great, but his rage blinds him from his full potential. If I could find another or perhaps more than one adept, I could be rid of him and have a much more powerful student." "But we are prophets," said a female human prophet, Only the scouts have knowledge of combat skills. Surely, we would be unable to train these apprentices." The prophets murmured in agreement. Sidious said to them; "I can see you have all forgotten the training of the Sith." He pulled a red cube-shaped object out of his robe, "This is a Sith Holocron, you will learn everything you need to know to train my adepts when the time comes." Kimur examined the cube and felt a great power coming over him and the prophets at the table. He should say no, but he knew Sidious would kill them all. "Very well, Lord Sidious, we shall train your apprentices." Said Kimur hypnotically. A smile grew across the old man's wrinkled face; "I knew you would."

Three years later, the temple buzzed with the sound of lightsabers clashing and apprentices training. There were ten apprentices; all except for two were human. Kimur watched from a balcony as two adepts dueled against two animated statues in the central reflection pond of the temple. He turned his back and went into the meditation chamber, he climbed onto the floating platform that hovered above the pit leading to the temple catacombs and entered a trance.

_He could see the future of the temple, empty, the walls covered in vines, many chambers flooded and in worse upkeep than the place already was. He saw a man wandering the temple, a Jedi? Hadn't Sidious said they were mostly gone? No, the order would return. This man had found Kaas in ancient text and was curious to see if the world posed a threat, but he would soon befall the same fate as Exar Kun, for his curiosity would lead him down the dark path. Kimur saw the man standing upon the platform where he was having the vision. The Jedi fired a ball of energy at a red-haired woman in the chamber, his student. The fallen Jedi and the platform descended into the catacombs and the red-haired woman jumped down after him. Now another vision: now the Jedi and the woman were in a chamber with an arched ceiling. The woman has a lightsaber in her hand but refuses to attack her master, who holds a golden lightsaber blade to the throat of his student; "…and for that, you will die!" proclaims the man. The vision disappeared and now Kimur saw the ghostly image of a departed Sith Lord. "Fool!" bellowed the ghost, "You have betrayed the Dark Force!" Kimur could see his man was Darth Millennial, the first Supreme Prophet of the Dark Force. "What have I done?" asked Kimur. "You and the prophets of Dromund Kaas have abandoned your ways, you rarely ever meditate and you have given in to Sidious' demands!" "I am sorry, Master Millennial," said Kimur sorrowfully, "Our visions of great power have blinded us to what our faith is truly about." Millennial looked as if he was about to attack Kimur, but he said; "You must prove your loyalty to the Dark Force, destroy all of Lord Sidious' adepts and you shall have restored order and redeemed yourselves." _

Kimur awoke from his vision and left the chamber. He went into a reflection pond room and saw a statue of some Dark Jedi warrior. He touched the statue, letting the Force animate it and told it, "I need you to kill the adepts." The statue acknowledged by igniting its lightsaber. He led the statue to the other reflection pond room, where the two apprentices were training, the statue walked up behind them and the other two statues that the students were training with began to surround them. The three Dark Jedi statues caught the two apprentices by surprise and they were promptly murdered. "Good work." Said Kimur. He dragged the two corpses to the vornskr den in the temple and then Kimur called all the prophets together for a meeting. "Darth Millennial appeared to me in a vision," said Kimur, "He told me we have betrayed the Dark Force by giving in to Sidious' demands." "What shall we do?" asked a prophet. "We must kill all of the apprentices," said Kimur, "It will not be any loss, being that several students have already completed their training and have left the temple to serve Sidious." Tissk said to Kimur and the other prophets, "Selon and I (Garl had been killed by angry mailocs a year before) will watch the swamp to see if we can find any of Sidious' students."

Later that day, Tissk and Selon were in the Outpost of the Dark Tree, looking for the Sith adepts. A scream came from outside and selon inquired to Tissk; "Did you hear that?" "Yes, sounds like someone being attacked by swamp wampas." Replied the Quarren. The two left their posts with their lightsabers on hand and investigated the noise. Sure enough, one of the students was being attacked by four swamp wampas; Tissk and Selon ignited their lightsabers and killed the wampas, the creatures made a strange squealing noise as they died. "Oh, thank you!" said the human female student, "I tried to scare them off, but I was too slow." "You're not safe yet," said Selon as he and Tissk drove their lightsabers into the woman.

Back at the temple, Kimur stood in the meditation chamber as several prophets dragged in a harried Rodian apprentice. "We found this one lurking around outside." Said one of the prophets. Kimur gestured to the pit in the room; "Throw him down there, the Guardians will take care of him." They hurled the Rodian down into the catacombs. In thirty seconds, hideous moaning and breathing was heard down below and the Rodian let out an amusing scream of horror, as he was ripped apart. Then there was silence and then quiet groaning as the Guardians returned to their sleep.

Hours later, the prophets returned to the meditation chamber. "Brother Kimur," said a Barabel monk, "We've nearly destroyed all of the students, only two remain." "Very good." Said Kimur.

Eelana had just received her daily embarrassment, being forced to dress like a slave girl and dance about the dining hall. She had changed back into her black robes and went outside to the courtyard. Rain sprinkled from the cloudy sky, not to say there was ever a day when Dromund Kaas wasn't cloudy. Eelana's lekku twitched in anger; how dare they make her dance nearly or completely naked everyday! She had overheard that Kimur had a vision where the ghost of Darth Millennial told him that the prophets had fallen from what they once were by accepting the Sith Lord's offer, and that all of Sidious' students needed to be killed. As luck would have it, she saw one of the students trying to lift a rock with the Force. "_This is a golden opportunity for me to step up from being their toy."_ Thought Eelana. "Get out of my way, runt!" growled the apprentice. Eelana concentrated and used the Force to grab the rock and smash it into the man's torso. The rock crushed him and Eelana went inside the temple to tell her masters.

Tissk and Selon returned to the temple to tell the prophets of their exploits. After Kimur heard their tale, Eelana came and cried, "Brother Kimur! I have murdered one of the students!" "Very good, Eelana," said Kimur, "Now all that remains is the last student." Coming out of a room came the last apprentice, a human female. "You won't believe what has happened!" she said, "All of the students have disappeared!" "You shall be next." Said Kimur. He extracted a lightsaber from his black robe, ignited it and attacked the student. She got out a lightsaber of her own and the two dueled. The two weapons clashed and the student knocked Kimur down, she held the lightsaber to his face and Eelana didn't know what to: should she let the woman kill Kimur, one of the people who tormented her over the years, or should she help him? The Twi'lek girl fired a blast of energy at the woman and killed her. Kimur said, "Thank you for saving me, Eelana," Eelana beamed with pride, "You may now dance for us!" Eelana felt her rage building.

Several days later, Sidious came to the temple. All of the prophets had gathered out in the courtyard and Kimur fell to the Sith Lord's knees as he stepped out of his shuttle, "Lord Sidious! The most tragic things have come to pass! All of your students were training in the swamp and were killed by swamp wampas! We tried to save them, but we were too late!" Sidious could see right through their scheme, "Liar! You cannot deceive a master of the dark side! You killed my apprentices because of your foolishness!" He unleashed lightning from his hands upon them all and cried, "You shall all feel my wrath!" The multitude of prophets collapsed to the ground and Kimur feebly reached for his lightsaber, but before he could ignite it, Sidious had already boarded his shuttle and was leaving. Everyone was in terrible pain; Kimur looked up and saw turbolaser fire blasting from the sky. "Run! We're being bombarded!" he shouted as everyone ran out of the temple. They were heading to a secret ravine nearby were several escape shuttles were that had been put there in case of an emergency like this. Kimur tripped over a tree and he shouted to everyone, "Get to the shuttles!" He wiped the swamp muck from his eyes and saw a thirteen-year-old Twi'lek girl standing nearby him he could only utter the words 'Eelana Sotta.' "Yes," she said, "Now I shall have revenge for what you and the prophets have done to me." He was now hovering off the ground and felt his neck muscles tightening. The last thing Kimur Alagon ever saw was Eelana cutting him in half with a lightsaber.

The prophets had fled Dromund Kaas in terror and headed for the Supreme Prophet's stronghold on Bosthirda, where they knew they'd be safe. Meanwhile, one of the escape shuttles flew towards the Star Destroyers in orbit, aboard was Eelana.

An Imperial officer approached the Emperor. "My Lord," said the officer, "An unknown shuttle has landed in the docking bay. The pilot is a young Twi'lek girl who says she has a proposition for you." "Bring her to me." Said the Emperor. A legion of stormtroopers escorted the Twi'lek before Sidious and she told him her story and begged to train under him. At the end of her story, the Emperor looked at her and said, "Very well, my young friend. You shall be one of my Hands." "I will do my best to serve you, Master." Said Eelana.


End file.
